Cherish
by kittykritik
Summary: Kagome had never quite recovered from when her love was snatched from under her. It didn't help at all when he walked through the door and greeted her either.
1. Prologue

Yes, I manage to spit these out ever so often. This one will be a series of one-shots. Well, if you like it of course…

Cherish

I knew something big was going to happen today. I knew it.

I knew it the moment I looked up into my husband's face and saw the drool coming down from the side of his lips. I knew it when I gripped his muscular arm and pulled myself up to kiss the other side. I knew it when his eyes fluttered open and he looked up at me in his still drowsy state of mind. I just… _knew_ it.

Which is why I wore the expression that made him look at me the way he did…

"… Koi…? Wha… what's wrong?" his voice dripped with concern and lethargy.

But, I couldn't tell him. Not that I didn't want to, I just didn't know what to say. How do you tell someone who hangs on your every word that you feel something life-changing could happen at any moment?

"Nothing, sweetie," I replied, wiping the look of confusion that was noticeably edged into my face. "I just had a weird dream."

And, so the day went on. Inuyasha, my magnificent mate, pried himself from the bed to go get into the shower while I began to prepare his favorite breakfast: scrambled eggs and ramen.

I'm chuckling now… remembering this. I complained for so long before I relented in making that for him. After a while, I just loved to see how his face lit up when he walked into the kitchen.

Later, he kissed me goodbye as he headed out of the door to his office job at the advertising company. I never thought he would enjoy a job like that, but he loved going to work everyday. He was so full of ideas… creativity…

I gathered my things to get into the shower so I could prepare for my day off with my sister. We decided to make use of my husband's healthy promotion and go shopping.

Passing the sink I noticed a pink and white box sitting at the edge. As I picked it up, I realized that it was a pregnancy test, one I bought weeks ago when I noticed I was late.

_He was probably looking for something and noticed it was in there… _I thought to myself.

It was then that I realized I was late… again… extremely late…

Caution radiated through my body and I immediately thought it was necessary that I take the test. It was the only way I could know for sure.

Twenty minutes later, I was on the phone with my sister speaking in heightened levels of excitement and ecstasy. I was having Inuyasha's baby. Finally. It had been four long years since we'd tied the knot, and for the past year we had been trying to get pregnant.

The next person I called was my husband, thinking it not fair that my sibling know before the baby's father.

"You… you're kidding… we… no! We're having a…"

He could barely get his words out. But, I knew he was happy. He told me he would get off of work to come home and 'take care of me.' I laughed and told him that him coming home and 'taking care of me' never sounding like what the words meant.

Nevertheless, he came home at three instead of four and the first thing he did when he entered the door was kiss me. He grabbed my cheeks and pressed him lips into mine with more force than ever before. I laughed into his kiss and pushed back with the same amount of feeling and joy.

We were having a baby.

After all the kissing and 'I love you's were said and the staring into each other's love-filled eyes was over, we retreated to the living room couch to talk about our future plans. We decided that it was time to move out of our tiny apartment and get a newer, bigger place for us and the baby. We talked about names and colors. We talked about great schools in the area and if we would use daycare.

And, in the middle of it all, I thought, _Wow. So this was it. I knew something big was going to happen today. I just knew it!_

My husband was called back into work.

He kissed me deeply at the door before he closed it behind him.

I watched from the open window as he approached the street.

He suddenly stopped and turned looked up at me, genuine grin on his face.

He hollered up to me.

"Get some sleep, babe! You're going to need it for tonight!"

I grinned back at him and called him a pervert.

"Yeah, but you love me. You always loved me. And I lo-"

How does a driver not see themselves before they cause two peoples' world to dissolve right in front of them?

Why does everything seem to stop moving when life as you know it comes to an end?

When does the sound come back when utter shock overwhelms you?

…

And… who is that deformed person laying on the ground staring up at me?

The love of my life could never look so ugly…

Never so… unfortunate…

Fatal…

Ethereal…

Red…

No. Not the man I love. It has to be someone else. Yes, it has to be another young passerby with hopes and dreams and a wife who is having his child.

But, the most important questions are…

Where in the road ahead does the heart-wrenching vision in your mind… the vision that keeps you up at night… the vision that makes you burst out in tears at the super-market… the vision that stabs you in the heart over and over…

Where in life does it go away?

And, why is it the one vision you cherish the most?

Did you cry, or was it too brief for you to? Review and tell me what you think.


	2. Chapter 1

I hated watching the news.

It wasn't because it was boring, or even because it talked about things I didn't care about.

It was just so… _sad._

I curled my feet closer into the pillow and flipped the channel.

The news reminds me of all the bad things that ever happened in my life. All the things that would have been headline news on my personal station. _Kikyo news _I liked to call it.

_Breaking news: Inuyasha Nakamura, brother-in-law to Kikyo Tanaka, was killed last night in a fatal hit and run. He was killed instantly while his wife and sister to Kikyo, Kagome Nakamura watched the scene unfold from the window of their apartment four floors above. The car and any suspects have not yet been identified. Back to you, Saito._

Yes, my news would be sad. It had been for four months now. I was on this… naïve high… I was high on life before Inuyasha died. Now, with Kagome living here with me, every single thing I do remind me that… well, shit happens. And life sucks.

I hear Kagome in the guest bedroom, crying again. This is the third time this morning. Not only is she emotional from the pregnancy, but she can't stop thinking about how her husband won't be there to see her child be born. I know all of this only because I finally got her to open up to me about a month and a half ago.

I sigh heavily and take a sip of my coffee.

No one can sleep when a pregnant woman cries in the next room. But, I won't be telling her that.

Okay, so I won't exactly say that I'm… rich. I'm just… what's the word I'm looking for? Privileged. Yes, that's it. When mom died she gave me most of the inheritance. I'd like to say that it wasn't because she liked me more, but I'd be lying. She did, only because she hated Kagome.

She thought Kagome was a traitor for not taking over the family business: baking. Yes, in the oddest of ways, my mother resented her for not wanting to center herself into the little sect of lower-middle class and make what my mom called an 'honest living.' No, Kagome had bigger dreams. She was a writer, and a good one at that, and felt like staying stuck in our little home town wasn't going to do anything to get her into the history books. So, Kagome left to find her own life and found Inuyasha.

My mother never hated me for not wanting to take over. No, she said it was Kagome's responsibility to take over because she was the oldest and it was tradition. Huh… there is no room in tradition for life.

When my mother died, she left the bakery to my cousin Yumi and most of the money she had to me. Turns out, she was pretty loaded in savings and it surprised the heck out of me and Kagome, especially since Kagome realized that mom was bitter until death. She got over it though. She was happy with her life, 'with or without mom's money,' she said.

But, hey, I'm starting to pay off student loans and going to get my masters; I need a little dough to make my world go round.

Yeah, but a bundle of my money is now going to taking care of my big sister. I love her, and I won't let her suffer like this. She's living with me now, but since the apartment they lived in was their place, they're… excuse me, _she's_ renting it out to some newly-wed couple from America. It made Kagome cry to see them in her home, happy and together. I had to handle that deal after that.

Anyway, she said the proceeds from that could go directly to me for taking care of her. I told her I agreed, but I don't take all the money. I've been setting it aside for my beautiful niece for when she comes into this world because I know my grief-ridden sister isn't thinking clearly.

But, neither am I, because I am currently sitting at my desk in my Sociology class thinking about all of this while my professor lectures. In fact, I'm so involved in my thoughts that I don't hear him call my name until the stranger next to me nudges my arm.

"Miss Tanaka!"

I sit up straight. "Sorry, I… uh… have a lot on my mind…"

I told my professor about my current situation and my lack of sleep, so he should understand.

"Well, guess what? You're not the only one in here with problems! Answer the question on the board!"

_That son of a…_

_

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**Yeah, I know this is a bit shorter, but this was all that was needed for this part. Tell me what you think.**

**mew...**


	3. Chapter 2

I sniffle the last bits of sorrow for this round of tears. It had been a while since I cried this hard. And it was all the baby's fault.

Well, I'd like to blame it on the baby, but it can't help its parentage.

The morning started out pleasant… well, as pleasant as it gets around here. I sat my slightly swollen self at the kitchen table with a sigh, remembering last night's dream. Just as the remnants of the affect was wearing off, I heard Kikyo yell from the kitchen, "What are you craving today, Kags?"

Before I even realized it, my mouth moved.

"Ramen… and scrambled eggs. And put some-"

I choked up in absolute horror and found myself running to my room again to bawl my eyes out.

You'd think I'd figure that any child of Inuyasha's would cause me to crave something so outrageous but it caught me entirely off guard. I couldn't handle the flashbacks that streamed into my mind and I began to feel nauseous and dizzy while I cried. I ran to the bathroom dry heaved into the toilet, crying all the way.

When I was done I looked in the mirror at the reflection I usually saw after another crying bout. That same woman, filled with sorrow and pain, only plumb in the face because of a forced diet for the being growing inside.

It was then that I realized something: it had been five months. Five months. And I hadn't stopped crying. Yes, he was the love of my life. And yes, he meant everything in the world to me. But, he was also my inspiration. And, there I was with the nerve to sit there and do nothing with myself? Cry myself into oblivion and sleep and eat all day? Watch sad lifetime movies and wallow in my sorrow? What would he say if he so me like that?

"_Get off the damn couch, Kagome!"_

He was always so full of life and energy. He was the one that inspired me to be all I could be while all I wanted was to be with him. I should have been ashamed. I was ashamed.

That's how I found myself standing in the kitchen again with a determined disposition.

"Um… you okay, Kags?"

"I want to work."

Her eyes went wide as she placed the warm pan back on the counter and walked toward me.

"What?" she asked dumbly.

I forced myself not to roll my eyes. "I want to work. At the bakery. I'm going to ask Yumi today."

Kikyo looked at me strangely for a while, then sighed and smiled. "Kagome… you need to rest. Why don't you get in the bed and I'll bring you-"

"No!" I exclaimed. I couldn't believe that she wouldn't see how serious I was.

"Kagome you are in no place to work!" she exclaimed, seemingly mortified. "You're pregnant. You shouldn't be taking on any… job that could cause you stress!"

"I'm only five months!" I protested.

"Only five months?! Kagome you don't even go to your check-ups or take your prenatal pills all the time. What makes you think you can handle… did the baby just kick?"

I had tried to hide my grimace when I felt the little monster kick me in the ribs, but it seems I'm not great at hiding how I feel. Especially not these days.

I held my head high. "I'm fine and will be fine, Kikyo. Mom never took her pills when she was pregnant with me, and I turned out fine."

I watched as she tried to hold in the remark that I saw swimming in her eyes and I glared at her, daring her to let it come out of her mouth.

"Look, Kags… you don't even know what sex the baby is."

"Why does that even matter right now?"

"Because if you were going to your check-ups like you should be, you would know! You don't take care of yourself enough to get a job, much less your baby!"

I was appalled. I was doing the best I could, right? I didn't even think I could see the gender right now. I never had an ultrasound because I was grieving. Mourning. What did she expect from me?

'She expects me to take care of my child…'

I sighed. Had I been neglecting my baby? Yes… I had.

"Fine…" I sat down in my chair and placed my head in my hands. "But… when the baby is born and I can find a baby-sitter, I'm going to get that job. I need to do something in my life… I don't want to be an old lady with no job…"

Kikyo rolled her eyes, "For the last time, Kagome, you're… not… old. You're only 26 for goodness sake! You're young for a…"

I looked up at her then, knowing what her words were going to be. She seemed to be choking on them and her face was turning pink. I wanted to slap her for what she was about to say, but I refrained. She was still slightly unaffected by this change in my life, and her innocence was something she was trying to hold on to. I wasn't going to deny her something that was no longer mine.

"Say it. A widow."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm still not over the fact that… never mind. What kind of position do you even want at the bakery? Are you actually going to… _bake_?"

The anger I felt was suddenly replaced by an amusement that never quite reached my face.

"What?" I replied. "Are you implying that I can't bake?"

A small smile graced my younger sister's lips. "I'm not _implying_ anything. I'm _telling_ you, Kagome, that unless you want to place to run to the ground, you should be a cashier."

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Sorry it took so long to update. I've been extremely busy with school and now I'm sick. I built up enough strength to post this.


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